1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of boat trailers, and more particularly to debris deflectors associated with such trailers for protecting boats on the trailers from damage caused by gravel, stones, etc. thrown rearwardly by wheels of vehicles towing the trailers.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In keeping with the ever increasing popularity of small boats for recreational purposes, various types of boat trailers have been developed for transporting such boats to bodies of water. Thus, the boats may be stored on land away from the water and docking or mooring facilities are not required. Also a vacationer is enabled to move his boat from one body of water to another as he chooses.
Boat trailers can be roughly divided into two general categories: those having substantially closed hull supporting beds and those having an open frame from which the hull is supported at several separate points by rollers, pads, etc. Examples of trailers having hull supporting, contoured beds are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,224,019; 3,339,217 and 3,528,095 of Gudmundson. A different type of closed bottom trailer for transporting open boats in an inverted condition is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,792,237 of Paulson, the space between the inside of the boat hull and the closed trailer bed of such trailer being adapted for storing boating and camping gear.
An advantage of hull supporting bed trailers is that a boat being carried on the trailer has its weight distributed over a large supporting area of the hull. Accordingly, the hull is subjected to low stresses. Also, the trailer bed provides protection to at least those supported hull portions from damage due to gravel and stones thrown rearwardly by a towing vehicle's wheels. In addition, as disclosed in the first two above listed patents of Gudmundson, the trailer may be made floatable to function as a floating dry dock.
A principal disadvantage of hull supporting bed trailers, however, is that, to be effective as designed, upper surfaces of the trailer bed must be contoured to watch the curvature of a particular hull size and shape. As a result, the trailer can ordinarily be used for only one particular size and type of boat. Not only is contouring of the trailer bed expensive in itself, but the restricted use of the trailers makes them uneconomical for general use with the almost infinite variety of hull configurations. Thus, such "contourized" trailers are generally limited to use with expensive boats where uniform hull support is desired to prevent possible hull damage, and trailer cost is not a major factor.
As a consequence, for general use open frame trailers having several hull supporting members such as rollers or pads, are the dominant type. Modern boat hulls are generally sufficiently strong and rigid that the several point support is not detrimental. Because a boat hull on the trailer is supported at only a few spaced apart points, a particular model of trailer can usually accommodate a wide variety of boat types with at most only minor adjustment of the supporting members being necessary. This wide adaptability to different types of boats, plus the simple open frame construction, enables economical mass production of the trailers, making them suitable for even relatively inexpensive boats.
Such open trailers have the further advantage of being comparatively light weight, thereby reducing towing loads.
Open frameworks of open trailers also have the advantage of being negligibly buoyant. This is desirable since the normal mode of boat launching and recovery is by backing the trailer down a shallow ramp into the water until it is largely submerged. The boat is then floated from or onto the trailer. Recovery and even launching of boats would be made considerably more difficult if the trailer were buoyant. In such use, open frame trailers also provide few water trapping regions and corrosion problems, particularly in salt water use, are minimized.
On the other hand a disadvantage of open frame trailers is that they provide substantially no protection to the boat hull from rearwardly thrown road debris. This is a major deficiency because roads to many boat launching and recovery areas are not paved and are rough and stony. Thus, hulls of boats transported on open frame trailers become pitted and pock marked. In some cases, actual hull damage results.
Although the Gudmundson U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,095 discloses a hull-contoured panel which can be installed on open frame trailers to support and protect boat hulls, such panels are generally unsatisfactory as gravel deflectors because they do not project sufficiently far forwardly to protect upswept bow portions of the hull. Also they are expensive to make and must be designed for, and limited to, use with a particular hull design as with hull supporting trailer beds.
Accordingly, to correct these and other deficiencies, I have invented an effective gravel deflector which is economical to produce, easy to install and is adaptable for use on many types of open frame trailers and with most hull types and which can be added onto existing trailers.